While there is all-round concern about how the NREGA funds are being utilised at the grass-roots level, the Union rural development ministry has initiated the process of inducting technology to streamline the delivery system under NREGA. This will have a revolutionary impact on programme delivery. With about 50 million people working on site in 2,50,000 panchayats all across the country, the magnitude of the task is daunting. However, once the initial...

A United Nations-backed intervention involving cook stoves holds the promise of saving lives, uplifting health, improving regional environments, reducing deforestation, empowering local entrepreneurs, speeding development, and helping to stem global climate change. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has joined international efforts to dramatically boost the efficiency of some 3 billion cook stoves across Africa, Asia and Latin America, with the aim to protect women’s health and provide significant environmental...

Banks will have to put in place a mechanism to verify that microfinance institutes (MFI) they finance do not charge exorbitant rates to the final borrowers. The finance ministry has asked Banks to ensure that MFIs, whom Banks are financing, do not lend at rates more than 24% — all inclusive rates — to the ultimate borrowers. Some Banks have recently inserted a clause while lending to MFIs that they...

Reserve Bank of India has set a projection of fove years by which mobile Banks would be penetrating to every village of India, said KC Chakraborty, Deputy Governor of RBI.   Chakraborty firmly said that in five years time every villager would be financially included. Mobile bank is a movable vehicle which reaches a particular region at a specified time. Every mobile bank is authorized by some bank and is operated by bank...

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Friday reviewed the progress towards financial inclusion by Banks in India. Dr Singh was briefed on the efforts being made by Banks to reach banking services through information and communication technology based models and banking intermediaries to 73,000 rural habitations having population of over 2000 as per the 2001 census by March 2012. The Prime Minister also reviewed the safety and security measures...